Man involved in violent confrontation with Salinas police in court

Jose Velasco, the man seen in cell phone video in a violent confrontation with Salinas Police in June, pleaded not guilty to three charges Thursday.

Velasco’s bail was set at $100,000 and he will be back in court July 14th for a calendar call and July 16th for a preliminary hearing.

Prosecutors charged Velasco with felony assault of his mother, another felony for trying to remove an officer’s Taser, and a misdemeanor for assaulting a firefighter trying to treat him.

“The reason we have taken our time with this case is because we really wanted to go through and make sure the only charges we brought were the ones we could prove without a reason of doubt,” said prosecutor Lindsey O’Shea. “And we were tasked with investigating the conduct of the officers so we could no way go forward with any charges until we knew whether or not we found their performance to be lawful, which we did.”

Velasco’s sister was in court and told NewsChannel 5 Velasco should not be charged with anything and they will try to bail him out.

“We’ll stand by him no matter what,” his sister, Isabel Loya said. “He’s our family. We don’t care what anybody says, what the media says, it’s our family. If anybody else was in our shoes, they would do the same.”

Velasco could face 11 years and 4 months in prison.